Starting a New Drawing

A quick way to begin a new drawing is to start from scratch, which starts a drawing that uses settings from a default drawing template file.

You can start from scratch from the Create New Drawing dialog box, from the Select Template dialog box, or without using a dialog box at all. In each case, you use either the NEW command or the QNEW command.

To start a drawing from scratch with the Create Drawing dialog box

If necessary, set the STARTUP system variable to 1 and the FILEDIA system variable to 1. On the command line, enter startup and 1; then enter filedia and 1.

On the File menu, click New.

In the Create New Drawing dialog box, click Start from Scratch.

Under Default Settings, click either Imperial or Metric.

The new drawing starts as drawing1.dwg. The default drawing name changes to reflect the number of new drawings that have been started. For example, if you start another drawing, the default drawing name is drawing2.dwg.

To start a drawing from scratch from a default drawing template file

If necessary, set the STARTUP system variable to 0 and the FILEDIA system variable to 1. On the command line, enter startup and 0; then enter filedia and 1.

On the Tools menu, click Options. In the Options dialog box, click the Files tab.

In the list of nodes, click the plus next to Drawing Template Settings. Click the plus next to Drawing Template File Location, and specify a folder path. Click the plus next to Default Template File Name for QNEW, and specify a drawing template file name. Click OK.

On the Standard toolbar, click Qnew.

The new drawing starts as drawing1.dwg. The default drawing name changes to reflect the number of new drawings that have been started. For example, if you start another drawing, the default drawing name is drawing2.dwg.